L.K.
Where is the balance in your article or should we call it an epistle? It seems some of the facts are straight but the choice of language utilized below, thoroughly illustrates why the dropping of several of the platforms were absolutely necessary to progress.
Your points are understood but the cart before the horse doth not make sense. Neither does the dividing language utilized below. Soap operas for the sole purpose of entertainment consist of similar dialogue; judgmental, opinionated, evaluative conclusively for "all." Hence I'm glad you do not speak for the majority of the party. Perhaps the rest of us have been "quiet long enough" busy working in our everyday lives, content with little to no progress. Someone finally took action. I'm extremely interested in their insights. It is noted in your article that there are no sources from "the other side" you slam, common of a balanced article. Would you at least provide a counter argument to minimal links?
Really, how is change to take place without the election of Libertarian candidates? Pontificating platforms haven't changed a darn thing in beyond 30 years. The party has finally grown-up. Cat-herding/catering is hopefully no longer de rigeur.
As a contrarian, may I also remind you of history. The suffragists took a back seat to abolition before moving forward. It was a unified, concerted decision though a divide between Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. If we were to include every idealistic platform as equal, by gods, some of us would have had to wait until 1947, like FRANCE to get the vote... and that was only AFTER the Americans helped rebuild the country after yet another World War! Neither should we take the position of one of my favorite suffragists (paraphrased) "We finally have the vote. What we really need are GUNS." (Implying radical, violent force as a means to the end). Would you also have us bog down the party with further gun debates when it is plainly laid out in the 2nd amendment? I wish you could have ridden with us on the NRA float Tuesday in Alameda witnessing the response from the crowd, "real America" (as you do not understand and slam below) including the guy who chased our float telling us to "get out of Iraq" though we explained to him we are not a governmental organization.
So, if you believe the marijuana issue belongs on the basic platform, I wish you the best of luck and encourage you to join the Green Party with others who hold your similar opinions so dear. Though I didn't attend the convention given the demands of business, I'm proud and RELIEVED we are finally on task. Please send the links from these "reformists" for a balanced point of view.
Respectfully incensed,
S. Rowan Wilson, MBA
Proud Northern California LP member
Free State project participant
NRA member
League of Women Voters